Our blog for female tech entreprenuers

LaunchVic’s second annual founder summit YeahNah18 was held on the 24th August 2018 in glorious sunshine at Central Pier in Melbourne. Exploring the Yeah’s and the Nah’s of what it’s like being the founder of successful startups and unicorns, the summit included two of our Springboard Alumnae Charlotte Petris and Sam Cobb on the couch with LaunchVic CEO Kate Cornick. Read on for some highlights shared by founders on the day.

Darrell Wade, Founder Intrepid Travel

Success is a team sport

Surround yourself with people to fill the gaps/competencies

Anna Baird, Founder and CEO Bared Footware

Social media is really time consuming. Don’t spend a lot of money on designing beautiful images unless the traffic is actually converting to people buying your stuff

The most common form of laziness is people being too busy!

Picture by Launchvic

Charlotte Petris, Founder of Timelio

Focus on your inner scorecard and not what everyone else thinks of you

Work can be an addiction

Kirsteen Phelan Rome2Rio

Diversity of thought is better when recruiting talent. Have diff genders, ages, cultures on your team.

Shahirah Gardner Co-Founder Finch

Accelerators – be clear what you want from them before you go in to them. They can be very demanding on your time

PICTURE BY LAUNCHVIC

Sam Cobb, Founding CEO AdAlta

Discussed failing fast in biotech

Founding CEO’s can be more objective than founders

Nathan Chan CEO Foundr Magazine

The keys to building a global following are threefold:

Produce content on a regular and consistent basis to keep your audience. Look at what is trending in social media for inspiration.

Leverage your content using collaborations with influencers

Giveaways are tremendously powerful! Give something away to attract an audience following

picture by launchvic

Other valuable insights from Nathan:

picture by launchvic

Build a landing pad to pre-sell stuff before you actually make it so you know you have the audience demand eg webinars etc. But be honest it is “coming soon”

Use Clarity.fm to source the experts you need to fill the gaps in your business. You can pay them by the minute for their advice online. Will save you engaging consultants and finding mentors.

Rob Phillpot, Founder of Aconex

Raise more than you need. It’s expensive and takes you out of your business

Don’t borrow money. It sets you up with a cliff for insolvency if you can’t pay it back.

Hire for emotional intelligence, not just skills

Be in the moment more during the journey. It will pass faster than you can imagine